The Last Word

By Nicholas Taggart | Posted: Tuesday April 30, 2019

Why do I come to school?

Do I come to learn? To catch up with the lads in form class? Do I just come here for Molars stats class and my chem period with Golder? I’d say I come here to do most of those things. But on many days of the week I walk out of my classes knowing I could have easily done more than I did. So, I thought to myself, why is that?

I think it’s because when you’re in class and think about the internal or exam that the work is relevant for it seems like it’s in the distant future. Like you have all the time in the world to understand it. So, once you’ve got the basics for that period you’ll go on your phone or chat with the boys around you. There’s just nothing in that extra work that makes you want to do it or maybe you just think it’s too hard and give up. In both cases you lose your motivation.

How can you motivate yourself?

First of all, it’s important to know that most of the time the motivation to do something will come after you’ve started it. So, don’t say you’re not feeling like doing the work before you’ve even touched it. Having a reward for completing questions or paragraphs can make you feel more motivated to do your work in school or in anything really. Sometimes the reward may not be physical, it could just be the satisfaction of answering a question. Having a pre work food, playlist, or activity that you only have just before and while doing your work gets your brain to switch on at the right time. Watching a motivational video on YouTube or reading a ‘motivating’ article on Facebook may seem like a good thing to motivate yourself but doesn’t actually help you become motivated. You’ll probably just end up wasting the rest of the period.

Motivating yourself to do work in class can be hard and I know that. Some off-topic chats are more interesting than what you’re working on. So, for this term boys, try motivating yourself through your actions. Complete all your classwork before you snapchat hot Julie, and at least try do some of your internal before you watch Netflix when you’re at home. I’ll finish off with a quote from Steven Pressfields book ‘The Art of War’. ‘At some point, the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain of doing it’.